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European soccer goes to war over wealthy clubs' plans for exclusive "Super League"

19 April 2021
Dan Ackermann

Europe's biggest soccer clubs have established The Super League, a new midweek tournament that would compete with — and threaten the very existence of — the Champions League.

Why it matters: This new league, set to start in 2023, "would bring about the most significant restructuring of elite European soccer since the 1950s, and could herald the largest transfer of wealth to a small set of teams in modern sports history," writes NYT's Tariq Panja.

  • The founding clubs: AC Milan, Arsenal, Atlético Madrid, Chelsea, Barcelona, Inter Milan, Juventus, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Real Madrid, Tottenham (with three more to come).
  • The financing: JPMorgan confirmed that they will underwrite the project. Each founding member would be provided at the start with ~$400 million, which is more than four times what the winner of the Champions League took home in 2020.

How it works: Instead of having to qualify for the Champions League each year, the 15 founding members would compete annually in the Super League, irrespective of their domestic league performance.

  • The final five spots in the 20-team league would then be filled through some form of qualifying (this remains unclear).
  • The tournament would feature two groups of 10, playing home and away matches, with eight clubs advancing to the quarterfinals.

The response: UEFA responded to the threat by unanimously voting to revamp the Champions League with an expanded field (from 32 to 36) and more group stage games (from six to 10 per team).

  • England's Premier League, Spain's La Liga and Italy's Serie A all denounced the breakaway league proposal, as did European politicians like British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
  • Open competition and promotion/relegation are core pillars of European soccer, so this Super League — which is closer in concept to closed leagues like the NFL or NBA — would alter the fabric of the sport.

The big picture: Europe's wealthiest clubs have long sought a better way to monetize their global popularity.

  • By forming their own competition, they believe they can better leverage their brands without smaller, less attractive clubs diluting their value.
  • It's a similar dynamic to the one that exists in college football, where most Power 5 leaders are interested in breaking away from the NCAA.

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

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Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.

Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.

  • The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.

What the transcripts say:

  • Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
  • The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
  • Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.